Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

second time from the end of April 1938 un til mid-Sep­ tember of th a t year. Before we discuss th is in detail, we should consider when i t was th a t the tuberculosis attacked h e r intestines. She had had certain digestive difficulties for a very long time. S ister K , who was w ith h e r in Vilnius during both h e r stays there, i.e. in 1929 and in 1933-1936, recalls th a t she h ad already noticed th a t S is ter F au s tina sometimes, for reasons of hea lth , could not ea t certain dishes "and would then ask for some­ th ing else instead." Also, S ister J . , who ran th e kitchen in the Vilnius house a t the time when S is te r F au s t in a was working in the garden there, remembers th a t when tuberculosis h ad already been diagnosed and she was therefore receiving additional food, i t often happened th a t she would go to the kitchen h e rse lf to ask for something else to keep h e r s treng th up, "as she felt so weak that she could not do her work". A t ano the r time, she asked if she could exchange a dish which did not su i t her, for some other. S ister F au s tina he rse lf gives u s an additional key to the understand ing of th is situa tion . As she once confessed to S ister J . "she had asked as a great grace from God, that Jesus should take away her sense o f taste". S ister J . w itnessed th a t "the tak ing o f food is, for her, a mortification." This symptom of th e lack of a sense of ta s te is an im po rtan t indication. I t is evidence of a significant malfunction in digestion, since i t led to a chronic loss of tas te . In the circumstances of S is te r Fau s tina , when the fortifying of h e r constitution depended on intensive nourishment, th is was an especially unwelcome symp­ tom. Where the digestion is impaired, no food can have the desired effect, and the absence of ta s te indicates th a t the re was such malfunction. Therefore, S is ter F au s tin a rap id ly lost strength . Eighteen months la te r she h ad g rea t difficulty in performing h e r daily duties. S is te r S., the superior’s 266